Puppetry of the planning minister

The twang of a mid-west American accent rang from an unlikely source in the plush green surrounds of the NSW parliamentary bear pit yesterday.

Ohio-raised former Labor premier
Kristina Keneally
, famed for her first question time retort as premier that she was “nobody’s puppet", wasn’t even in the chamber.

So Planning Minister
Brad Hazzard
struck upon the happy plan of re-enacting the scene – including an enthusiastic imitation of KK’s accent – for the recently elected Jamie Parker, the Greens’ first lower house MP in the state. “I’m nobaady’s protege, I’m nobaady’s puppet, I’m nobaady’s girrl," Hazzard hollered, straying a tad from Parker’s original inquisition. “But it turned out she was."

Victory has made a confident question time performer of many a Coalition government MP, with Treasurer
Mike Baird
taking the early lead with regular roastings of Labor leader
John Robertso
n
, dubbed variously Captain Solar (over Labor’s botched solar bonus scheme) and Sergeant Sloppy.